The Ascent of Man

The universe of Newton ticked on without a hitch for about two hundred years. If his ghost had come to Switzerland any time before 1900, all the clocks would have chimed hallelujah in unison. And yet, just after 1900 in Berne, not two hundred yards from the ancient clocktower, a young man came to live who was going to set them all by the ears: Albe

A large system of irrigation extending over an empire requires a strong central authority.

Every animal leaves traces of what it was; man alone leaves traces of what he created.

is a tightrope that man walks, between his desire to fulfil his wishes, and his acknowledgement of social responsibility. No animal is faced with this dilemma: an animal is either social or solitary. Man alone aspires to be both in one, a social solitary.

Two great men were born in the year 1564; one was William Shakespeare in England, the other was Galileo Galilei in Italy.

the life of each, man and the plant, depends on the other.

And that means that this city and all the cities here rested on an invisible base of communication

is comic to think that cotton underwear and soap could work a transformation in the lives of the poor. Yet these simple things – coal in an iron range, glass in the windows, a choice of food – were a wonderful rise in the standard of life and health.

Relativity is the understanding of the world not as events but as relations.